Albion Women Interim Head Coach Martyn Irvine believes his side’s “endeavour, application and attitude” were all excellent as they collected a one-all pre-season draw with Real Bedford on Sunday afternoon.
Forward Rhianne Oakley opened the scoring for the Baggies, before a speculative equaliser from the visitors meant the match ended level.
The hosts put in an encouraging all-action performance, and Irvine was delighted to see his team take on the key points from their intense training sessions.
He said: “We adapted to the game really well. We came up against a really good side in Real Bedford, they’ve managed to keep the core of their group from last season, had some great patterns but we dealt well.
“I know we want to dominate with the ball, but we also set traps so well. Our pressing and our counter pressing was excellent, the levels on the regain were incredibly high and that led to us being really good on the top line.
“We’ve had players get into threatening positions. The endeavour, application and attitude was top, and I don’t think top quite does their performance levels justice. To a player, everyone was outstanding.
“I mentioned to the girls, and I don’t want to give excuses, but we’ve not worked on the creative finishing phase much yet. We feel we’ve worked enough on getting into those areas, and the girls can see those efforts being worthwhile - on another day we could bury 50% of those chances.
“The pleasing thing for me is the way we got into those positions and that really encourages me moving forward. It’s all about getting the minutes into the legs, and it’s so pleasing to see what the season could look like if we keep up these performances.”
Forward Abbey Jones thoroughly enjoyed her second pre-season outing in navy-blue-and-white, after signing from Durham earlier this month. The 23-year-old insists the team are “moving forward by each game.”
She said: “I thought it was a really good game, we worked on our pressing this week and that worked really well. Our final entries was great and we could’ve put a few more away.
“I enjoyed it a lot, we got plenty of final-third entries, and it was really front-footed when we went forward. It was great.
“It’s more of what Martyn’s looking for from us. We’re moving forward by each game, that’s what we’ve been saying. Wednesday is another great chance for us to build on today and get even better.
“I’m really enjoying my time here, the way we want to play is exactly how I want to play and now we’re really looking forward to the season starting. Training has been hard, we’ve had a lot of high-intensity work to get us fit for the upcoming games.”
